


IOU

by EntameWitchLulu



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:50:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21551059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EntameWitchLulu/pseuds/EntameWitchLulu
Summary: Ryo hears that Johan is thinking about retiring from professional dueling -- before they've gotten a chance to settle their score.  He's definitely not going to let Johan get away with this.
Relationships: Johan Andersen | Jesse Anderson/Marufuji Ryou | Zane Truesdale
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20
Collections: Yu-Gi-Oh! It's Time to G-G-G-Gift! [Mini-Exchange]





	IOU

**Author's Note:**

  * For [harinezumiko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/harinezumiko/gifts).



> I was really intrigued by this prompt you put in for the YGO Exchange, and I hope I managed to do it justice, especially since it's been such a hot minute since I've worked with GX characters;;;; I hope you like it, harinezumiko!!

_ You owe me a duel. _

He didn’t really think he was going to get an reply. But Johan had been on television that morning. Some interview, something about a recent win in a recent tournament. Something about early retirement for gods knew what reason. Ryo had turned off the television before he’d heard him explain to the microphones, and his phone was in his shaking hand before he could think better of it.

As soon as the message shot to its recipient, however, Ryo found himself staring at it. At his white knuckled hands gripped around the case, at the glowing screen and the single bubble of a message, the first one ever sent or received from this number, a number he couldn’t even remember putting into his phone in the first place or when he had gotten a hold of it. 

He stared at his own words, and at Johan’s name at the top of the screen. 

His lips curled. What was he  _ doing _ ? He shut off the screen and threw the phone onto the nearby couch, internally snarling at the emotions that roiled in his chest. Emotions he did not want to acknowledge or unpack. He turned his wheelchair back towards the kitchen, away from the things that distracted him.

And then his phone buzzed. The screen lit up. Hardly even thirty seconds had passed. How quick was Johan to answer messages? For only a moment, he almost decided to ignore it. Almost turned away, pretending he hadn’t sent it, going on with his life again.

But he was already moving, already maneuvering his wheelchair around the couch, and reaching for his discarded phone. The new message glowed against the screen, and for a moment, he saw Johan’s face in the only way he truly remembered it — half blurred, wavering like a mirage, through the frame of an interdimensional gateway, and yet with eyes that still burned as fierce and clear as fire.

_ Geez, at least ask a guy out to dinner first ;) _

* * *

Johan sipped something obnoxiously pink through a long straw, leaned over the booth table while he fiddled with his phone in his other hand. Ryo shifted his cane slightly, self consciously, as though he might be able to hide it under his long coat. But he needed it to walk, and had little choice but to use it.

Johan’s eyes flickered up before Ryo had even said anything. A smile cracked over his lips, and he raised his phone in a wave.

“This spot okay?” he asked. “It’s pretty packed in here.”

“It’s fine,” Ryo said, jaw tight, but he eyed the booth with some distaste. The last thing he wanted was for this meeting to start out with Johan watching him struggle to do something as simple as slide into a seat.

Johan put his phone back into his pocket while Ryo carefully lowered himself onto the chair, and then even more slowly swung his legs around under the table. His heart pounded too fast already and he cursed silently. It had been years since the heart attack that had ended his life in the other dimension, before he’d mysteriously found himself alive again, and home. And yet, his body was still so  _ weak _ . Irreparably damaged by the deck he had chosen, and the path he had followed.

If Johan noticed Ryo’s difficulties or self-directed anger, he didn’t acknowledge them. He just took another long sip of his bright pink drink and then set the cup down.

“It’s been a while!” he said, leaning his elbows on the table and smiling. “How have you been? How’s the Marufuji Circuit? Been hearing good things about it.”

“Fine. And the circuit is fine,” said Ryo, tightly. 

Despite his grousing, he  _ had  _ been doing better, physically. He didn’t need the cane or his wheelchair as often lately, and he grew winded far less. The doctors had told him he would never make a full recovery, but he was likely to have good days and bad at a steady pace just like this. He’d likely never be able to duel professionally again, at least not without a chair to sit in, and the thought of that made his stomach turn.

But he wasn’t hear to make small talk about what had been going on in their lives since they had last seen each other. He fixed his eyes on Johan as though to impress on him the seriousness of Ryo’s irritation towards him.

“I heard you’re retiring.”

The words came out of his teeth pressed together as though they were being squeezed out. Saying them aloud made them feel as though they hung in the air, laden with all of the roiling thoughts and feelings that their meaning sent boiling through him, feelings that he didn’t yet want to give the satisfaction of putting into words.

Johan, however, didn’t seem to notice the gravity of the sentence. He laughed lightly, leaning back in his chair.

“Well, I dunno if I like to label it like  _ that _ ,” Johan said. “Makes me sound  _ old _ .”

“You’re leaving professional dueling. That sounds like retirement to me.”

Johan stuck his tongue out slightly, and took another deep sip before answering.

“It’s not for sure yet,” he said. “Just been thinking about it. Exploring other options.”

Ryo’s hands twisted into fists in his lap, anger bubbling up within him again as though a fire had been lit beneath his heart.  _ Exploring other options _ .

“Thinking about it enough to talk about it on national television.”

Something like recognition flared in Johan’s eyes, and his lips made an “o” of understanding, as though he finally made the connection that this was why Ryo had called him. He took another sip from his drink, though it was beginning to thin into the cracks of the ice now.

“Did you want to order anything?” Johan asked when he let go of the straw. “I’m sure coffee’s not the thing for ya lately, but this dragonfruit stuff is pretty good.”

“I’m not here to drink fruity drinks and talk about how life has been since high school,” Ryo said, hoping that he was controlling the edge in his voice just enough so that Johan would understand Ryo’s ire.

Johan’s cheery smile faded. He stared at the label on his cup for a moment, a contemplative, serious look on his face.

“I know,” he said, not lifting his eyes from the label. “I know what you’re after, you know.”

Then why was he dancing around the subject? It took everything Ryo had not to slam his fists on the table and draw the attention of every person in the cafe. Was this why Johan had invited him  _ here _ ? So that he couldn’t make a public scene? He willed his heart to slow before it turned into a panic attack, or worse. He had to close his eyes for a moment, training his breathing to slow.

“We never finished our duel,” he said.

Johan stared at his empty cup. He squished it in his hand, crackling the ice inside.

“No,” he said. “We didn’t.”

Ryo clenched his jaw, so tight he thought he might crack his teeth. Was he going to have to spell it out for him?  _ Make _ him say it out loud?

“I want,” he said, slowly, as though Johan couldn’t hear him, “to finish it.”

Johan still didn’t look up from his damn cup. He sucked through the straw even though there wasn’t anything in it, making that awful noise of air and slightly melted ice shooting through the straw.

“Are you  _ listening _ to me?” Ryo said.

“I’m listening,” said Johan. “I just —”

Ryo balled his hands into fists on top of the table.

“Are you trying to run away?” he said. “Are you scared I’ll win? Or —”

He couldn’t voice the other possibility. The possibility that Johan  _ wasn’t  _ afraid of losing to him...but of the possibility of  _ winning _ . The thought made something of his old, Hell Kaiser self rear its head inside him, made him think about hurting something, or at the very least crave the electrical shock of battle that he had been denied for so long. The possibility that Johan might think him so  _ fragile _ that he wasn’t even worth  _ thinking _ about facing again — it cracked something inside him, something that he didn’t want to acknowledge was beginning to break. 

He hadn’t had a proper duel in years, not outside of a few painfully boring ones for the Marufuji Circuit with Shou. His duelist’s soul  _ ached _ in a way it never had before in his life, and nothing seemed able to sate it. But if he could just have this duel — if Johan wouldn’t look at him like some kind of  _ glass statue _ — 

His roiling thoughts fizzled to a halt, however, when a waitress appeared at the table.

“Sorry for the wait, kids,” she said. “Here ya are.”

She set down another one of those obnoxiously pink drinks on the table in front of Johan, who flashed her a winning smile, and then a mug of something warm and sweet-smelling in front of Ryo, which he knew he absolutely had not ordered.

Once she was bustled off again, Ryo lifted his eyes from the cup back up to Johan, who had begun to sip at his new drink again.

“What is this supposed to be?” he said.

“Hot chocolate,” said Johan. “Shou told me you like it. I took the liberty of ordering it for you.”

“What part of I didn’t come here to —”

“You didn’t come here to shoot the breeze. I know.”

He took another noisy sip, and Ryo was beginning to think he was doing it on purpose.

“Don’t misunderstand me here, Kaiser,” said Johan, and something about the way he said Ryo’s old nickname sent an anticipatory chill down Ryo’s spine. Johan pointed at him with the straw of his tilted cup. “I want that duel as much as you do.”

Was it a lie? Ryo didn’t think so. The flash in Johan’s eye felt real. The tone of his voice sounded determined, eager,  _ genuine _ .

“Then what are these games of yours for?” Ryo asked testily.

Johan raised both eyebrows and smirked. There was  _ something _ about that smirk that made Ryo feel a heat that had nothing to do with the hot chocolate wafting towards his face.

“I wasn’t kidding,” he said. “About the dinner bit.”

Ryo blinked. He looked down at the cup of hot chocolate. He hadn’t had one of these damn things in years, and something about accepting it when Johan had simply done what he wanted felt like losing something, so he didn’t reach for it. Then he looked back at Johan, who was taking yet  _ another _ noisy, long sip of the drink — far too long to  _ not _ be on purpose.

“You’re losing me,” he finally said.

Johan popped the straw from his mouth as he burst out with a quick laugh, a laugh that made him almost keel forward onto the table.

“Kaiser, look,” he said. “I’ve spent  _ years  _ thinking about that duel we never finished! Do you know how much I think about it??  _ All  _ the time.”

“You can’t possibly think about it all the time. That’s not possible.”

“It’s hyperbole,” Johan said, gesturing with his cup. “Or whatever. Every time I duel someone in the leagues, I think about how much  _ energy _ there was with you.”

Ryo raised both eyebrows.

“Really? Me. Not any of the other duelists you’ve faced. Not even Judai?”

“I love Judai, and I love dueling him,” said Johan. “But I got to  _ finish _ those duels. I got to know how they ended. I got closure on them.”

He shook his drink towards Ryo again.

“But you? I never found out. Never got to know how it ended. Everytime I duel I think — what if this was with Hell Kaiser? How would it have gone? All I can think about is how jealous I am that Yubel got to steal a duel with you while I was passed out.”

Ryo found himself smirking in spite of himself. To so casually mention the duel where Ryo had died as a point of jealousy...Ryo sort of liked the way Johan didn’t pretend as though it hadn’t happened, that he framed it as the glorious duel it had been rather than the day he had died, the way that Shou and so many others did.

“Then why haven’t you said anything before?” he said. “If it’s so important to you that you find out how our duel ended...why wait this long?”

Johan rolled his eyes, smirking.

“Kaiser, I was waiting for  _ you _ to say something about it.”

Ryo blinked. For the second time today, he felt as though the wind had been pulled out of his sails, and he wasn’t sure he liked it. He also wasn’t sure he  _ disliked _ it.

“Me? You were waiting for  _ me _ to challenge you again?”

“Well, that, and also the world went to shit for a little bit, so we had other things to think about, and then we lost touch,” Johan said. He shrugged as he leaned back in his booth. “But honestly.  _ You’re  _ the one with your own damn official league. If we were going to have the kinda duel you wanted, a big one, one with even  _ half  _ the stakes and the energy of our last one, I’d figured you’d want to have it on  _ your  _ turf. Can’t exactly invite  _ myself  _ to somebody else’s circuit.”

Ryo stared at him, trying to gauge if he was lying or not. He...did have a  _ point _ . To have an official duel with Marufuji circuit duelists, even Ryo, Johan’s endorsements would require the Marufuji Circuit to officially invite him.

“So all this time,” he said, “you were just...waiting.”

“Well, I had to find something else to do with my time in the meantime,” said Johan. “But I always figured it was gonna be inevitable.”

He grinned as he shrugged towards their setting.

“And look at that,” he said. “I was right.”

He tilted his head then, running one of his fingers around the rim of his cup. Ryo leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table. He fixed his gaze on Johan’s, daring him to look away from him this time. This time, Johan did not. His eyes met Ryo’s with the same fiery determination that Ryo remembered from all those years ago. Something...something like electricity suddenly seemed to skitter down his skin. Not like the electricity from his days of underground dueling, but something...something that sent an anticipatory shiver down his spine.

“You still didn’t just say yes,” Ryo said, not dropping Johan’s eyes. “About the duel. You made me come here, first.”

Johan’s smile grew a little wider.

“Can you blame a guy for being curious?” he said.

Ryo blinked.

“About what?”

Johan stuck his tongue out at him with a grin.

“About whether or not it was  _ just  _ the duel, just the stakes back then that got me all excited, or if it was you?”

The electricity turned into a faint, buzzing fire just beneath Ryo’s skin. Almost without thinking about it, he gripped the mug in front of him, and downed the now lukewarm chocolate in a single gulp.

He dropped the mug back onto its saucer, and met Johan’s burning eyes, met the grin on Johan’s lips with one of his own.

“All right,” he said. “Fine. You’ve interested me. What’s your next move?”

Johan raised his eyebrows up with his smirk.

“Like I said,” he said. “I wasn’t kidding about dinner.”


End file.
